Bethel High bumps school schedule back by 10 minutes

BETHEL - Hundreds of Bethel High School students longing for another few minutes of shut-eye in the morning will get their wish.

When the new school year begins at the end of August, high school will start 10 minutes later.
"It's not life changing," said schools superintendent

Gary Chesley
about the time change. "But 10 minutes is 10 minutes for a 16-year-old."
The change means the high school day will begin at 7:35 a.m. instead of 7:25 a.m. and will end at 2:15 p.m. instead of the present 2:05 p.m.
In the past, the school district and school board toyed with the idea of starting high school as much as an hour later. School officials cited nationwide studies that showed teenagers are more alert in class if they can sleep later in the morning.
But even though Bethel High School students said the idea of sleeping later was great, many didn't like the fallout at the other end of the day. An hour's later start would have meant that the school day ended an hour later, and in a survey taken at the high school many students said that would interfere with after-school sports and jobs.
Some parents of elementary school children also objected because a 60-minute later start at the high school meant elementary school children would have to go in an hour earlier. In the depth of winter, said some parents, their children would be waiting for the school bus in the dark.
Bethel's 23 buses, run by Laidlaw, service all five schools. That means any change in the schedule of one school affects the others.
Under the new high school plan,

Bethel Middle School
and
Johnson Elementary School
will start and end 10 minutes later than they do now, and the Berry and Rockwell elementary schools will begin and end five minutes later.
Parent
Jennifer Larsen
, who had objected to the one-hour proposal, has no problem with the revised plan. "I don't think it will make much difference. It's so minor."
Larsen, who has one child going into Bethel Middle School and two at
Berry School
, said some parents may have to make adjustments in child care because of the new schedule.
Bethel High School student
Grant Anderson
, who will be a senior at the start of the new school year, said the change in time is "good and bad." Even though school will end only 10 minutes later, "it may mess up people's schedules who work after school."
Anderson, 17, works after school and tries to get to his job as soon as possible when classes end. Anderson isn't worried since he works for his father, but he said other bosses might not be as understanding.
Still, Anderson thinks the extra 10 minutes of sleep in the morning will be nice. "I have a hard time waking up. I try to wake with the alarm, but sometimes that doesn't work and my dad wakes me."
Besides allowing high school students a little extra sleep, Chesley, the schools superintendent, said the new schedule means buses have less wait time between runs. "It helps the buses be more efficient."